Clinical Pharmacist, The Netherlands

My hospital is in Amsterdam. We have a large team in the pharmacy that includes more than 100 pharmacy technicians. They work in the out-patient department where they dispense medicines to ambulatory patients, and in the in-patient department where they are involved in medication safety, medication reconciliation, medication distribution and medication compounding.

The variety in the work is attractive, but the pay is modest, work is done in shifts and there is always more work to be done than people to do it. Over the last decade, we have always had vacancies that we cannot fill. That's because on the one hand, Amsterdam is an expensive place to live, driving away many in the healthcare sector. On the other hand, the fact that we are continuingly understaffed puts a growing burden on the whole team.

If we do get new colleagues, we struggle to find the time to give them proper training and guidance on the job once they start, which then in turn leads to insecurity, frustrations, and difficulty to retain people.

 If colleagues leave, the remaining ones who are already working too hard, must work even harder, making it even more difficult to properly teach new colleagues the ropes. This is a downward spiral that we are unable to break. As a pharmacist responsible for my team, I am often feeling stressed about this, because I am unable to turn the tide. For our patients, it leads to longer waiting times and we are hearing more and more complaints.